Report Of Council Research Articles

Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS): In Scientific Evidence, Even 'Gold Standard' Techniques Have Limitations

There is an emerging view that there are two types of forensic science: “junk” science such as forensic odontology (bitemark analysis) and “real” science such as nuclear DNA typing. The 2009 National Research Council report contributed to the emergence of this view. On the one hand, the report was sharply critical of techniques such as bitemark analysis. On the other hand, the report had high praise for techniques such as the DNA typing identification technique and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) as an elemental analysis methodology. The courts are becoming increasingly skeptical about “junk” science techniques. In some instances, they are excluding testimony based on such techniques. In other cases, they are severely restricting the wording of the opinions based on such techniques that experts may testify to. However, in the case of “real” science, the courts tend to assume reliability. In particular, the courts have come to view nuclear DNA typing and GC/MS analysis as the “gold standards” of forensic science. The courts routinely admit testimony about nuclear DNA typing, and one court has gone to the length of declaring that GC/MS analysis is “nearly infallible.” However, the 2016 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report raised questions about one “gold standard,” DNA analysis. The PCAST report questioned the validity of the traditional methods of analyzing mixed DNA samples. The report faulted those methods as unduly subjective. In addition, many commentators have challenged the validity of Low Copy Number (LCN) testing of minute or “touch” DNA samples. Although the New York have admitted testimony about LCN analysis, many other courts have barred such testimony. The thesis of this article is that like nuclear DNA testing, GC/MS analysis has important limitations. The article explains that when GC/MS is used in drug testing, the court must inquire as to the mode of analysis: full scan, selective ion reliance, or selective ion monitoring. The article adds that when GC/MS is employed to identify ignitable liquids in arson investigations, the court should inquire as to the condition of the sample tested: Has it been subjected to weathering, microbial degradation, or pyrolysis? It is certainly justifiable to subject “junk” science to more intense scrutiny. However, the courts should not naively assume that GC/MS is “nearly infallible.” In forensic science, even “gold standard” techniques have significant limitations.

Testing Times Ahead: Non‐Invasive Prenatal Testing and the Kind of Community We Want to Be

AbstractThis article reviews the Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ report on Non‐Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT); and introduces two general questions provoked by the report – concerning, respectively, the nature and extent of the informational interests that are to be recognised in today's ‘information societies’ and the membership of today's ‘genetic societies’. The article also considers the role and nature of the Nuffield Council. While the Council's report identifies a range of individual and collective interests that are relevant to determining the legitimate uses of NIPT, we argue that it should put these interests into an order of importance; we sketch how this might be done; and we suggest that, failing such a prioritisation of interests, the Council should present its reflections in a way that engages public debate around a number of options rather than making firm recommendations.

The teaching of information communication in Namibian schools

PurposeThe study is a survey covering the Ohangwena, Khomas and Otjozondjupa regions highlighting developments in the teaching of information literacy in Namibian schools through the subject Basic Information Science (BIS). This paper aims to provide an update on previous related studies which have been conducted in Namibia led by Nengomasha et al. (2012), Namibia Library Council (NLIC) Report (2007) and Smith et al.’s Baseline Study (2008).Design/methodology/approachThe main objective of this study is to find reasons for non-compliance in the effective teaching of BIS in Namibian schools focus sing on the three regions. The data collection methods were questionnaires and focus group discussions.FindingsA major finding from the study is that 80 per cent school principals are supporting the teaching of the subject BIS in the Ohangwena region, while 20 per cent are non-compliant in the teaching of BIS. The compliance levels in the Otjozondjupa region is that 75 per cent school principals support the teaching of BIS whilst 25 per cent school principals are non-compliant. In total, 60 teachers were randomly sampled in the Otjozondjupa region, while 75 school principals out of a population of 157 were also randomly sampled in the Ohangwena region. In the Khomas (100) region, 52 school principals were randomly sampled out of a population of a 108. The study recommends that it is critical for school principals in Namibia to fully support the development of young learners to be critical thinkers for lifelong learning challenges through the teaching of information literacy.Originality/valueThis study is original.

Council Reports

N/A

How explicit is the cognitive science foundation of geoscience education research? A study of syntactical units in JGE articles

ABSTRACTThe National Research Council's report, Discipline-Based Education Research: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering (Singer, Nielsen, & Schweingruber, 2012), states that discipline-based education research (DBER), such as geoscience education research (GER), is informed by research about cognition and learning. It also states that how different disciplines ground their DBER in existing cognitive theories of learning varies. The aim of this study is to take a first step toward systematically evaluating the degree to which research on undergraduate geoscience education published in the Journal of Geoscience Education (JGE) is informed by cognitive science concepts and grounded in cognitive learning theories. This study's theoretical framework draws on a linguistic theory of representation and a general cognitive theory of learning. The methodology of a systematic literature review was used to examine 1,760 articles published in JGE from 1985 to 2016. Of these articles, 167 articles met the selection criteria (undergraduate geoscience education research) for further appraisal. The results of this study suggest that undergraduate geoscience education scholars (a) have an ongoing interest in cognition-related research topics, (b) have an overall low degree of fluency or familiarity with cognitive science concepts, and (c) can further future GER studies in cognitive learning theories. Recommendations based on this study's findings include independently learning more about cognition, developing partnerships or collaborations with those more knowledgeable about cognitive concepts and theories, and supporting one another in the GER community to increase fluency with cognitive science concepts and increasingly incorporate theoretical frameworks into future GER studies.

Advocacy in practice

I am writing on behalf of the Advocacy Working Party of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which has been charged with the responsibility of updating the Council Report on Advocacy published in 1999. Advocates working on behalf of patients are going to become a more regular feature of our working

Indications of Speakers in Ancient Dialogue: A Reappraisal

AbstractThis contribution reconsiders the question of indications of speakers in ancient Greek dialogue literature and their ‘invention’ by Theodoret of Cyrus by offering a systematic examination of the available (mostly papyrological) evidence. It discusses ancient conventions for marking changes of interlocutors in Greek literary dialogues and compares them with those present in dramatic works and in documentary and paraliterary texts such as reports of court proceedings, the Acta Alexandrinorum and Acta Martyrum, and reports of Church councils. It is hypothesized that the development of indications of speakers in Greek dialogue was influenced by documentary practices of the Imperial period and by paraliterary genres which imitated them.

Report of Council for the Year 2017

Report of Council for the Year 2017

On the Legal Risks and Prevention of the Internet Public Offering in China

Since 2012, the scale of China's equity financing has shown a rapid growth trend, which has aroused the attention of the regulatory authorities. This year NPC and CPPCC period and work report of the State Council, clearly put forward to carry out the pilot work of the public to raise equity to raise the public, enhance public service innovation ability, the development in China provides policy support for the public to raise equity. Public ownership will become an important part of China's multi-level capital market, providing a new financing channels for SMEs. However, the risk in the process of raising public equity financing can not be ignored; improper operation will damage the interests of the participants, and even affect the stability of the financial order. This paper first introduces the basic situation of the congregation to raise financing, including its classification, characteristics, operation mode and development status, and analysis and policy environment in China to raise public equity development economic environment, points out the necessity and obstacles in the development of the public to raise equity. Then, on the basis of the development environment and operating mechanism, the author systematically analyzes the risks faced by the participants. The congregation raised platform's legal status is not clear, facing the legal status of risk; risk of illegal issuance of shares of the company are the initiator and infringing intellectual property rights; investors face the moral risk, project risk, financing risk, valuation of excess stock holding risk and liquidity risk has a direct impact on the enthusiasm of investors to participate in the public equity raise. Finally, in order to improve the operation mechanism and process management, the public platform to improve the operational mechanism and process management, to prevent the risks involved in the financing process.

APA Council Reports.

At the fall component meetings of the American Psychiatric Association in Arlington, Va., September 13-16, 2017, the APA councils heard reports from their components. Following are summaries of the activities of the councils and their components.

Repeatability and reproducibility of forensic likelihood ratio methods when sample size ratio varies

Existing statistical methods for estimating the log-likelihood ratio from biometric scores include parametric estimation, kernel density estimation, and recently adopted logistic regression estimation. There has been a growing interest to study the repeatability and reproducibility of these methods on biometric datasets after the 2009 National Research Council report [15] and the 2016 President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report [1]. For a statistical forensic evaluation method to be repeatable, it needs to generate consistent log-likelihood ratios for various sample size ratios between the genuine (mated) and imposter (non-mated) scores from the same database. It is a well known fact, that for logistic regression methods, the estimated intercept value depends on the sample size ratio between the two groups. Therefore, when computing log-likelihood ratios using logistic regression estimation, different genuine and impostor sample size ratios could result in different log-likelihood ratio values. We performed extensive simulations and used face and fingerprint biometric datasets to investigate repeatability and reproducibility of existing log-likelihood ratio estimation methods.

Formative Analysis of Aging in Place: Implications for the Design of Caregiver Robots

Many have conceptualized caregiver robots as consumer products and studied elders’ perceived needs afor and preferences about such products. For reviews, please see (Broadbent, Stafford, & MacDonald, 2009; Jones & Schmidlin, 2011). That approach, though, could create robots that cannot satisfy elders’ actual caregiving needs. Alternatively, one can conceptualize caregiver robots as workers in complex socio-technical systems. To do so, one would need a detailed account of the caregiving that takes place in elders’ homes. Unfortunately, as noted in a National Research Council (2011) report, such a detailed account of caregiving does not exist. Accordingly, we sought to develop such an account. There are many ways to analyze work (for a discussion of general approaches, see Vicente, 1999). They can be categorized into 3 general types: normative, descriptive, and formative approaches (Vicente, 1999). We adopted a formative approach because formative approaches are tailored to the analysis of complex socio-technical systems (Vicente, 1999). They capture work requirements without specifying how that work must be done or who must do it. For example, the constraint “must not lose track of time” captures a work requirement but allows the associated work to be accomplished in a number of different ways (e.g., by checking a clock, setting an alarm) and by a number of different entities (e.g., family member, caregiver robot). To conduct our analysis, researchers observed caregiving in elders’ homes, and interviewed caregivers about their work activities. Researchers then organized their findings into an Abstraction Hierarchy (AH; Vicente, 1999), that is, a detailed account of the aging in place socio-technical system. Our primary aim was to create an AH that describes means-ends relations between the complex socio-technical caregiving system’s overall objectives, work tasks, and physical resources. Such a description provides a detailed account of the caregiving work domain, and serves as the foundation for subsequent formative analyses of caregiving. To create the AH, research team members completed 4 steps: 1) analyzing existing caregiving documentation, 2) observing caregiving and interviewing caregivers, 3) drafting and/or refining the AH, and 4) validating the AH. Steps 2 and 3 were iterative. This process is consistent with Naikar, Hopcraft, and Moylan’s (2005) recommendations regarding formative analyses. The AH made clear that caregiving for those who age in place is a complex and nuanced activity. More specifically, our analysis confirmed existing research regarding categories of caregiving tasks and revealed aspects of caregiving that have not been detailed so far. The existing literature indicates that caregivers assist older adults with self-maintenance activities of daily life (ADLs), such as eating, toileting, and dressing (Lawton, 1990), instrumental activities of daily life (IADLs), such as cooking, cleaning, and shopping (Lawton, 1990), and enhanced activities of daily life (EADLs), such as participating in social activities and pursuing hobbies (Rogers, et al., 1998). Our analysis confirmed those findings, and our AH provides a more detailed account of those tasks than was previously available. Our analysis also revealed aspects of caregiving for those who are aging in place that have not been detailed thus far in the research literature. For example, our AH contains a purpose-related function called Counseling, which concerns ensuring that the elder does not experience psychological distress. To perform this function, the caregiver must understand the elder’s situation (e.g., a family conflict), use information about that situation (e.g., experience with relevant family members and/or past conflicts; the elders’ past choices), and offer the elder advice about how to proceed (e.g., which family member’s advice to follow). The main implication of our AH for the design of caregiver robots is that such robots cannot be designed to perform purpose-related functions in a one-size-fits-all way; rather, caregiver robots must exhibit context-conditioned variability (Vicente, 1999). Our AH has many other important implications for the design of caregiver robots, which unfortunately cannot be detailed here due to space constraints.

Marginalising homœopathy: an Australian case study

Abstract Homœopathy, once an accepted form of medicine, is currently under attack in Australia, so much so that its very existence is threatened. To illustrate techniques of marginalisation of homœopathy in Australia, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) report of 2015 is examined. As there is no standard framework or classification of marginalisation techniques, boundary work ideas were used to suggest techniques used in the process of marginalisation. To condemn homœopathy, the NHMRC used at least eight techniques: authority, asserting protection of autonomy, exclusion, double standards, normalisation, denigration, censorship, expansion and diversion. The NHMRC report is a revealing example of how biomedicine uses various tactics to marginalise alternative therapies, thereby maintaining biomedicine’s dominant position.

Participation Skills in Biology Practical per Class Level in Lugari, Kakamega County, Kenya

Practicals form an essential part of the biology curriculum in Secondary Schools. At the end of every four years of secondary schooling, students are tested on their proficiency in practical skills. But according to the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) reports over years, the practical paper is performed poorly. These reports also indicate that, some of the required skills are not taught yet the same skills are tested in the secondary biology practical examinations. This study investigated the participation skills in biology practical per class level in Lugari, Kakamega County, Kenya. The study was carried out in Lugari District with the aim of assessing the efficiency of the practical skills necessary for biology practical examination. A descriptive survey research design was used to assess students’ participation, compare their participation at the implementation stage and to determine factors affecting participation at the implementation stage of biology practicals. The respondents were also categorized per class level. A random sample of 10 public schools was selected from which 300 students were proportionally selected. Questionnaires and observation schedules were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study reveal that most students of the higher class level reported that they had less than five practical lessons per term. The study recommended that the Ministry of Education (MOE) through Quality Assurance and Standards to enforce government education policy directives on learner participation in the teaching-learning process through inspection of school facilities necessary for proper practical learning to take place. This study further recommends that teachers adopt a heuristic approach in teaching to enable learners to develop skills. It is hoped that these recommendations shall be useful and shall form part of the guidelines for all stakeholders in education to improve learning of biology practicals.

How the environment is positioned in the Next Generation Science Standards: a critical discourse analysis

The purpose of this paper is to describe how the environment and environmental issues are conceptualized and positioned in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to examine underlying assumptions about the environment. The NGSS are a recent set of science standards in the USA, organized and led by Achieve Inc., that propose science education goals based on the National Research Council report, A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Drawing from critical discourse analysis, we present a detailed textual analysis of the NGSS to identify the positioning of the environment with respect to humans and human activity. This analysis shows patterns in the ways that the environment is conceptualized and inscribed in the standards as an entity separate from people through both exclusion and ambiguity. We also discuss findings about how agency is more often ascribed to actions or activities rather than people and when solutions to environmental issues are included, the focus is on technoscientific solutions. Finally, we provide implications for considering scientific and environmental literacy, education for action, and the role of standards documents in shaping educational practice.

Assessment of AcuteIn VitroHuman Cellular Responses to Smoke Extracts from a Reduced Toxicant Prototype Cigarette

Abstract Assessment of novel tobacco and nicotine products for their harm reduction potential compared with cigarettes is of significance for regulators and public health. The National Research Council's report, “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century,” outlines recent advances in molecular biology and the utility of human in vitro systems in toxicity testing. Such approaches could enable efficient, ethical, and economical risk assessment of chemicals and chemical mixtures. We investigated the potential of a simple in vitro lung model to discriminate between a commercially available cigarette (CC) and a reduced toxicant prototype (RTP) cigarette, which yielded significantly reduced toxicant emissions compared with the CC. The investigation compared cytotoxicity, oxidative stress-related and proinflammatory endpoints, associated with smoking-related disease development. Furthermore, we assessed the discriminatory potential of the model upon exposure to a selection of test matrices, which captured different f...

A Broader Bioethics: Topic Selection and the Impact of National Bioethics Commissions.

Comparative assessments of national bioethics commissions in the United States commonly look at the differences among these groups over their forty‐year history. A particular focus has been differences in the membership, mission, methods, and reports of the President's Council on Bioethics, which was active from 2001 until 2009, compared to those of its predecessors and the recent Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, active from 2009 until 2016. The differences are real, but disproportionate attention to them can obscure the substantial similarities in commissions’ structure and function throughout the history of expert bioethics advice to government. As the Trump administration considers what role, if any, a bioethics commission will play in its work, it would be well served to consider how choices regarding the design of such a group and the topics it examines can best facilitate the unique contributions it can make to the government and to the country.

A perspective on bitemark analysis: from empiricism to scientific rationality

Among the numerous missions realized by the forensic odontologist, the morpho-analysis of a human bitemark, both on an alive or dead victim, plays a relevant role since the identification not only affects the victim but also concerns the perpetrator. This analysis requires the forensic odontologist to compare the bitemark left on a victim's skin with teeth that leave a dental impression of the assumed perpetrator of the crime. For over a century, many experts have been working to make bitemark analysis more reliable and improve dental impression recording. Despite these efforts, current bitemark analysis was recently challenged by the U.S. National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) report, which considers that it does not meet the required scientific standards.

Speaking assessment perceptions and practices of English teachers at tertiary level in the Turkish context

AbstractTeaching speaking is one of the challenging dimensions of teaching English as a foreign language. In the Turkish educational setting, students are exposed to English from second grade at the primary level until the first grade at tertiary level. Although the exposure to English is intensive, it is observed that students are unable to solve language-related problems even at tertiary level. A recent British Council report (2015) revealed that students recruited at Turkish universities have an inadequate level of speaking proficiency relative to the standards of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The reason may be multi-faceted; however, investigation of assessment practices of English instructors may shed light on this problem. This study aims to investigate tertiary-level English language teachers’ perceptions and practices of speaking assessment. Personal Construct Theory (PCT) forms the basis for this case study. The data was collected via repertory grids, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observation. Focus grid analysis was conducted to analyze and interpret the data. The findings of the study reveal that the participants do have individualized beliefs regarding assessment of speaking, which necessitates training for teachers on classroom assessment to raise their awareness regarding commonality of practice in in-class speaking assessment.

Perspectives of Decentralized Powerloom Industry in India- An Empirical Analysis

<div><p><em>Decentralized powerloom sector in Indi has always occupied a prominent place in the economic spheres of India. Present study pertains to the decentralized powerloom sector in India and its various dimensions. The data obtained from various reliable sources such as ministry of textiles, fibre2fashion, powerloom development and export promotion council and RBI reports were subjected to time series analysis and regression analysis. The results indicated there is an upward trend towards growth in terms of employment generation and production. The results pointed towards the decentralized sectors’ enormous potential to generate employment to both skilled and unskilled human resource in the country. The regression analysis showed a positive relation between the sector and GDP. In the light of the potentiality of the sector, suggestions have been put forth for harnessing the potential of the sector and make aid the country to be the most preferred source for clothing needs of the world.</em></p></div>